1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a workflow management method and a workflow management apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of workflow systems for electronically reviewing and approving documents in an organization such as a company have been proposed (see, for example, patent document 1).
In a conventional workflow system, a creator (or a drafter) of a document determines a workflow by referring to rules in one's organization and assigns participants to the workflow who review and/or approve the document in sequence.
[Patent document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-65874
A conventional workflow system as described above has the following problems:
(1) It is troublesome for a creator of a document to determine a workflow by referring to rules in one's organization.
(2) A conventional workflow system normally uses a dedicated architecture for handling workflow documents and tasks. Such a workflow system                Requires complicated maintenance.        Requires a dedicated client application.        Lacks in flexibility and scalability.        Cannot cooperate with an existing document management system having no workflow function.        